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The purpose of this Amendment is to post the vendor questions and answers and post updated SOW dated 12/06/2022

Questions and Answers

Q1. Please clarify what constitutes a record . How does one know that they are required to take VHA-provided records management training, Talent Management System (TMS) Item #3873736 Records Management for Records Officers and Liaisons.  How does one go about taking this training? What are the costs involved? Is this an online training or in-person? If in person where does this training, take place and for how long? What are the costs involved?

A1. Federal record as defined in 44 U.S.C. § 3301, includes all recorded information, regardless of form or characteristics, made or received by a Federal agency under Federal law or in connection with the transaction of public business and preserved or appropriate for preservation by that agency or its legitimate successor as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the United States Government or because of the informational value of data in them.

The term Federal record:
includes Oklahoma City VA Healthcare System records.Â
does not include personal materials.
applies to records created, received, or maintained by Contractors pursuant to their Oklahoma City VA Healthcare System contract.
may include deliverables and documentation associated with deliverables.

If any of the contractors participating in the contract are creating, maintaining, or dispositioning VHA records then they need to take the TMS training mentioned in the requirements in order to handle our records. Arrangements to take the training should be able to be made with Education. I m including Education for further guidance on this. If the contractors are not creating, maintaining, or dispositioning VHA Federal Records then the training is not needed.

Any training delegate can assign the training and each individual that needs it can likely self-assign the course, similar to the majority of TMS courses.

Q2. We are a New Zealand based company however most of our developers reside in the US. If some developers in New Zealand were to work on the Patient Hub application (but not with VA data) what information do you need to see in a security plan ? What does the VA deem acceptable?

A2. Per the Enterprise Risk Assessment that is approved, the whole thing should be internally contained within the VA (i.e. the software loaded on the VA computers, and its only connection is to the VA servers). So if a vendor employee in New Zealand is working on an update to the application, then the VA gets to keep it current (which for the Patient Hub software approval is required to stay patched and up to date), then there is no issue. As should be no external connection outside the VA to Patient Hub

Q3. In addition, how do we get access the following handbook 0710 to ensure we comply?

A3. The Link is provided here. VA Publications Home Page

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